


too much too early, too little too late

by Kugawing



Category: Pikmin (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Fix-It of Sorts, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Found Family, My First Work in This Fandom, Starvation, Team as Family, also spoilers for olimar's assignment and olimar's comeback, basically a rewrite of the Formidable Oak with higher stakes if you really squint, hot take: the koppaites should have brought louie with them to fight the plasm wraith, pikmin 3 story mode spoilers, the koppaites learned how to plan way too late, write a chapter in an hour challenge
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-11
Updated: 2020-11-11
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:48:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27508612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kugawing/pseuds/Kugawing
Summary: All the fruit on the planet had been collected. The empty bottles that had once been filled laid strewn about the ship. Only three remained on the shelf. It'd been a month since Brittany had last handed out uneven rations. It had been longer since a fourth mouth to feed had been added to their ranks.In which the Koppaites time on PNF-404 reaches the triple digits.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 18





	too much too early, too little too late

All the fruit on the planet had been collected. The empty bottles that had once been filled laid strewn about the ship. Only three remained on the shelf. It'd been a month since Brittany had last handed out uneven rations. It had been longer since a fourth mouth to feed had been added to their ranks.

The Hocotacian is still bound, floating around their spaceship. If Alph really tried, he could imagine the other's movements to be something akin to the bouncing screen of a DVD recorder. Those things were rare in current time, but he still remembered them from his youth. Not that he was out of his youth, and with a glance towards his companions he is reminded that he is the youngest person on this spaceship. Excelling in his classes, his tasks, his training, it had all led to him being the one to save the planet.

It had been three months since Alph had felt excitement about this adventure. That delight, that wide-eyed wonder, it had faltered and shattered when the alarms began ringing; it had faltered and shattered when he had been ejected from the spaceship; it had faltered and shattered when his search for the cosmic drive key turned up empty handed. The other two Koppaites are sitting around a table, discussing in hushed voices.

They treat him like a child. Alph knew that they were just trying to keep him from being stressed out, but he had signed up for such stress when he agreed to come along on this mission. He allowed his gaze to fall back to the Koppad, he allowed for himself to ignore the two gleaming bottles of blue juice left on the shelves. It reminded him of the first true day on this planet, the day where he had felt hope replace his excitement as a Rock Pikmin carried back a strawberry; the day where he had felt hope replace his excitement as he reunited with Brittany.

"We have a plan for tomorrow set up," Charlie called, waving a green glove to gesture Alph to come over. He took his seat next to the captain, eyeing the overhead map that projected onto the table. The land called the Formidable Oak, and a series of four areas. Dotted lines, markings for predators of the color of Pikmin desired to deal with them. A note of where bridge pieces laid, where electricity zapped, where blockages needed to break and glass needed to be shattered.

Gently he tapped his Koppad, to upload the data into his device. This marked a week since they had begun to hammer away at the Formidable Oak and the defenses that laid within, all crafted by the Mysterious Lifeform. The worst part, and Alph figured that he was alone in these thoughts, was that the predators that laid here were not able to be recycled into more Pikmin. Those that fell in battle were in vain if they fell. The heavy losses they had suffered on the first two days had meant a trip to the other continents had been in order to replenish their numbers.

Knowing their luck, the time away would mean that that Lifeform would have already repaired all the defenses that the trio had managed to tear down. "Brittany is going to use Winged Pikmin to carry Olimar this time. Red Pikmin were a good idea due to those fire geysers, but we need all the fighters we have focused on, well, fighting." Charlie continued, the time and lapse allowing Alph the time to take in the plan. He and Charlie would be clearing out a path, getting bridge parts, breaking barriers. Same as last time, but now Alph felt a slight surge of security with the knowledge that they were not charging in blind.

"We still don't know what this second cave looks like." Brittany's thumb rubbed against her glass, and adjusted her glasses as if the change would allow her to see another small dribble of juice for her to drink. "When we get in there, we need to figure out top priority immediately."

Alph gently tapped his thumb against his Koppad. "It'll likely be dark. The entrance to that section didn't seem to have many holes to allow sunlight, and from the outside," a pause, flicking the map over to where the presumed second cavern was located, "there are no holes. So we're gonna need to get as much light as we can."

A hum of thought came from Charlie as he shuffled in his seat. Alph turned to his captain, watching the intense and focused look in the other's eyes. Behind the captain floated Louie, spinning aimlessly in the low gravity. "Yellow Pikmin, then. I'll make a few more changes to the layout tonight. Right now, the both of you need to get some shuteye."

"I'm fine," Brittany began to insist as she stood up from her seat. She collected the empty glasses and added them to the messy pile. A reminder it was of how close failure was, and Alph chose to instead put his gaze everywhere but that messy section of floor. "Besides, someone needs to stay up and make sure he doesn't take what little remains of our food." Her pointed words seethe at the floating Hocotacian. Louie does not respond. He never does.

"You watched him last night. I can, I can watch him tonight." The offer sputtered from his mouth before he was able to stop it. He gave the Hocotacian a glance, but if the other heard he made no note of it. It often befuddled him, of how silent the Hocotacian was. In Alph's incredibly limited range of personally interacting with Hocotacians, they always seemed to be a heavily chatty species. One that was so silent, barely speaking to the Koppaite team, it absolutely befuddled him.

His attention was brought back to Charlie as the captain sharply shook his head. "No, Alph, I'll watch him. You two absolutely need rest. Er. Something something, flower comparison," he added on at the end with a small gesture toward Brittany. It earned a huff, but she turned and stalked away to her room without a further complaint. Alph felt exhaustion begin to creep in, but the stern look that Charlie had on his face meant any argument that he would supply would be futile.

Tucking away his Koppad, he moved off to his own bunk in the trio's shared room. Brittany had already buried herself under the blankets, leaving Alph to question if she was sleeping with her space suit on. Absolute dedication that would be, although Alph certain would not blame her. Frankly, he felt like doing the same - the day spent collecting Pikmin had left him complete and utterly drained.

He settled into bed, taking a deep breath. He knew well that he would not be able to have an easy sleep tonight. It had not landed in his favor for a long, long time. About the time where the glasses on the floor began to outweigh the jars on the shelves, if Alph recalled correctly. He rolled over, snagging his Koppad. _'Oh, how much easier this would be if we just had one more set of hands on our side,_ ' the Koppaite thought as he began to mindlessly flicker through the pictures that he had taken (and the guilt of how he had convinced his companions to spend an entire day of their important duty taking _pictures_ ).

An idea came to mind. Suddenly, rushing into his thoughts like a waterfall. They _did_ have an extra set of hands on board. They _did_ have a fourth member in their ranks. They _did_ have someone who had seen that dark cavern before. It was a shot in the dark, a risk - but there was little more that the trio could do that they had not done already.

Excitement bound his chest, a feeling that began to twine with a newly blossomed hope. The morning of their latest day of exploration could not come soon enough.


End file.
